Search Results
Working Paper
Bank performance and regional economic growth: evidence of a regional credit channel
This paper examines the relationship between bank performance and economic growth at the state level. We develop a regional credit view to explain how, due to information costs, regional banking conditions can influence local economic activity by affecting a region's ability to fund local investments. The model suggests that local banking-sector problems may constrain economic activity in financially distressed regions, whereas no such link need be evident in financially sound regions. We test the empirical relevance of this credit view for the 1983-1990 period using state-level data and find ...
Journal Article
Examining the microfoundations of market incentives for asset-backed lending
A review of four papers that model market-based (as opposed to regulatory-based) forces driving the asset-backed lending market, revealing that under certain conditions, the information costs that make financial markets important as conduits of credit can also create nonregulatory incentives for asset-backed lending as an efficient funding mode.
Journal Article
In search of the elusive credit view: testing for a credit channel in modern Great Britain
An examination of the credit performance of the financial sector in the modern British economy, showing that problems in credit markets associated with debt and default/liquidation can disrupt the production of real financial services necessary to channel funds to efficient investment opportunities.
Journal Article
Financial fragility and regional economic growth
An examination of the potential link between local financial problems and regional economic growth, discussing how the health of the financial sector can affect economic performance when credit markets are segmented along regional lines.
Conference Paper
Scale economies at payday loan stores
Discussion Paper
Piggy Banks
What do banks do? Ask an economist and you’ll get a variety of answers. Banks play a vital role in allocating capital by linking savers and borrowers; they produce information by screening and monitoring borrowers; they create liquidity; they share and distribute risk; they engage in maturity transformation by borrowing short and lending long. What you won’t usually hear is that banks may help people stick to an optimal savings plan that they might not be able to stick to if they invested their money themselves. In other words, banks may serve as piggy banks by preventing people from ...
Conference Paper
Payday lending: do the costs justify the price?
Report
Piggy banks: financial intermediaries as a commitment to save
Savers with uncertain life spans cannot stick to long-term investment plans when they invest directly in liquid assets. Before horizons are known, all savers will plan to roll over their short-term assets if returns turn out high. Ex post, the short-term investors will consume their liquid assets rather than reinvest them. Delegating investment decisions to an intermediary reduces the commitment problem, and leads to more efficient portfolios. The higher return to savings should also increase savings rates.
Journal Article
Does small business need a financial fix?
An evaluation of several proposals that would promote additional lending to the small business sector, some through direct government intervention and others by changing existing regulations to promote the market's allocation of credit. The authors argue that market-oriented initiatives are the preferred approach for improving a small-business credit crunch.
Working Paper
Portfolio risks and bank asset choice
An investigation of the effects of credit risk and interest-rate risk on bank portfolio choices, showing how bank capital inadequacy may prevent a bank from investing in the optimal portfolio and how the efficiency of the bank's intermediation technology affects its choice of second-best portfolio.